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"I'll be positioned in this office by 2027," Starmer stated, joking that if our discussion went well, he might welcome the interviewer into Downing Street for a follow-up conversation next year.

For a PM, there's rarely ever break for leaders. Shortly before our chat started, Starmer had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and trying to work out precisely had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had recently launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

When our interview, which was much longer than typical, had concluded, Maduro had been charged in New York.

A Refresh for the New Year

But as the year starts, the Prime Minister appears to have had a kind of a revitalisation. Maybe even just some relaxation with the family at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

This seemed to have left him in better spirits than at the saggy tail end of 2025, a dreadful annus horribilis for him.

But are he and his supporters being unrealistic if they reckon his political fate are about to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that a significant number of his fellow MPs are convinced he's not very good at his job. A faction of them would sooner gamble and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was having none of it in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the next election", maintaining no one would remove his five-year mandate from him – despite the fact that the most effective strategy of preventing Nigel Farage and Reform UK entering No 10 might be for Labour to change its leader.

"We are in the fight of our generation and I intend to lead us," he declared.

The May Elections

The problem for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised far sooner than then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He sought to contend, perhaps excessively, that they are concerning who runs councils, and who runs the devolved administrations in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not a verdict on Westminster.

Accurate – up to a point. But although he may be reluctant to concede it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

This did not stop Sir Keir suggesting that there were no situation under which he would resign, even if one of his colleagues contested his leadership for the job, should those elections prove disastrous for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He attempted to account for his low poll ratings by saying the electorate was naturally impatient for things to improve. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he said, when plans the government enacted during their initial turbulent year began to show results.

• He committed to close asylum hotels before the current deadline of 2029, although he did not set a specific date on that.
• He said too, with the proviso that it wasn't a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any time since Russia's major invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western allies were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to offer security for Ukraine – to guard a potential peace.

His big point is that in 2026 the country will "turn the corner".

A Consistent Script

The PM may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – calmer, maybe, with a longer slot to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from various quarters for a more decisive strategy, with greater political direction, more vigour, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were familiar ones.

When he finds himself in considerable political difficulty, should he consider a change of tack?

No government, and certainly not one that has been unpopular for many months, gets everything its as desired.

Sir Keir's problems are not just because governing is difficult, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the recent past.

Regrets and Risks

The prime minister told me that he regretted saying he was "delighted" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd previously made – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir blamed "the process" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying it wasn't his responsibility.

And he is inviting evident political risks as the year unfolds. His close relationship with the US president entails a new complication after Trump's strikes on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who opposed the war in Iraq, over many years, the notion he would be at ease with these events seems unlikely.

International Law and Brexit

He asserted he was a "longtime proponent of international law" but we "just lack the full picture at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to criticise the action prior to we spoke. And the government is likely to face increased demands to give an clear view in Parliament in the next few days.

And there has always been simmering desire in the Labour ranks to undo or remake some of the outcomes of Brexit.

The PM rejects he's doing that, but his new firmer pledge to align more closely with the single market – the giant economic European trading zone – will probably provoke protests that he is reneging on his promise never to try to undo the choices that flowed from Brexit.

A move to cosy up to more of the single market will delight many on his own side, but it is prime ammunition for Reform and the Conservatives to